Computerize Your BBQ Experience

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This is chapter eight from the ExtremeTech book, Geek House, published by Wiley Publishing. The book shows how to make the most of technology in the home, with 10 PC-based hardware hacking projects.

This is, unabashedly, an article for your inner carnivore. We did find nearly 300 hits on Google searching for “smoked vegetables,” but that was out of curiosity more than anything. We like smoked barbeque a lot, but to be right, they have to cook on a very low heat for a long time to let the fat render out. We also like the flavor we get by smoking with charcoal logs—an electric smoker just doesn’t do the job right.

That combination, long, slow cooking with charcoal, is hard to do well. We keep the smoker at around 225 degrees F, a temperature so low that it’s easy for the fire to go out. You can do it if you’re willing to tend the fire constantly, but we’re not that patient.

Project DescriptionInstead of tending the fire yourself, a small control system can tend it for you, controlling the air flow to maintain a set temperature. You could enhance our design to warn you to add fuel during a very long smoke cycle.

Figure 8-1 shows the smoker we use. It’s a slight enhancement of the common horizontal design, hanging a separate firebox on the left of the main smoker. The separate firebox keeps the direct radiant heat from the coals away from the meat, letting the hot smoky air do the cooking. The placement of the firebox lower than the smoker causes the upwards convection flow of the heated air to draw air into the smoker and then up the flue. The air inlet and flue damper are manually adjustable to control airflow and therefore the rate of combustion, which determines the internal smoker temperature. Continued…

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